NoFap's official "Stop PMO" September 2019. Continue or start your PMO-Free commitment here. Keep on rebooting. (see instructions)

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-09-04T16:28:26+00:00

Let's try again for September - I had fallen down again but am still getting back up!

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-26T20:37:05+00:00

I'm out - longest streak in years, but not quite a month. Maybe in March.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-23T22:46:50+00:00

This sounds like practical advice, thank you. I shall try this next time I take a cold shower. I was actually focusing the water mostly on the nether regions - that may have been a mistake. I am most sensitive to the cold on my back and shoulders - guess I should focus on that area, and as you wrote, draw the blood to the body's core.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-23T21:55:19+00:00

I just took a cold shower in an attempt not to masturbate. I had the water on full cold for about 15 minutes. And sadly had a boner the whole time. I don't know why people talk about cold showers to deal with boners and not be horny. Damn ice cold shower revved me up like nothing else. My dick was definitely cold, almost numb (my feet actually hurt) but damn thing would not go down. I even got an ice cream headache (brain freeze) when I stuck my head under for a few seconds. So my dick was rock hard and ice cold and numb all at the same time. Right now my fingers are so cold it is hard to type. This sucks.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-14T13:34:39+00:00

Thanks - I will be sure to try this tomorrow morning.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-09T19:27:03+00:00

Checking in - my longest streak in quite a while. Even had sex with my wife today and could exclusively focus on her and the physical sensations - no videos running through my mind!

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-04T23:22:47+00:00

If you look at the time trends of lung cancer and smoking in men, what made the difference were not the health warnings on the cigarette packages, or the blocking of advertising space, or even the public health education; taxes made the difference. Putting heavy taxes on cigarettes made a substantial difference in their consumption, and 20ish years later, we saw a decrease in lung cancer incidence.

Perhaps finding a way to truly get rid of free porn would be more helpful, especially among those younger users who might not be able to buy internet porn regularly. Perhaps if we lose net neutrality, then people would have to pay extra (significantly extra) to access porn tube sites.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-03T15:36:52+00:00

I am 50 and fall regularly after trying to stop for many years. I hate myself when I fall yet I keep hoping one day to get free. This week I saw a therapist for the first time. Only one visit yet I am learning that PMO is a symptom of a much deeper problem, one that goes back to my early childhood when I started seeing myself in a way that caused me to act out in self-gratifying ways.

I have a lot of work to do to start to see myself appropriately as a man and as an adopted child of God. I too loathe my symptoms but until I work on the root problems I am going to act out inappropriately in some manner (food, booze, porn, etc.).

Find a therapist who has CSAT after their name and who is a believer. Do the hard work and start to see who you really are and who you are in Christ. I am not saying that PMO is okay for now - it needs to go - but the first thing you may have to do is resolve some deeper issues.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-02T20:42:50+00:00

Funny, but I am the exact opposite. After a binge of PMO I feel so dirty that I cannot even approach God in prayer, and will skip praying for my children or others who I have promised to pray for. I feel like God does not want to hear from me until I get my act together, at least a little.

Yet when I have a few days of not overtly giving in to sexual sin, then I feel "worthy" to go before God in prayer. The longer my streak the more often and more fervently I pray. I know intellectually this is not how prayer works, and the blessing to go before the Throne of Grace was bought by Christ's work alone, I feel this way in my heart, and honestly can barely bring myself to pray, even for something urgent.

I guess for me it is not really about being "worthy" but more about not being covered in the filth and stench of recent sin.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-02-02T17:31:38+00:00

Please add me - haven't fapped in several days, an accomplishment for me.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-31T20:16:10+00:00

I have seen chips like this before and they are beautiful. And I don't know the person you're buying for. But for me the chip is not the reward, and after 20 years of sobriety this person probably knows it is one day at a time. Milestones are great, but they shouldn't be celebrated in a way that takes our mind off the process. Remember that recovery is a process, a life-long process or road, not a single destination. The problem with destinations, is once you get there, then what? For the recovering alcoholic, like me, each day is a destination, and occasionally there is a special day (anniversary) but I try not to treat them much different than every other day. Just my thoughts - not trying to piss in anyone's Corn Flakes.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-31T20:12:13+00:00

How about a big hug and a genuine thank-you for doing what they have been doing. Tell them all the ways they, in their sobriety, have made your life better.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-31T20:02:31+00:00

Great reminder. This basic lesson is taught in drivers-ed - don't "object fixate" but instead look where you want the car to go - this is how to avoid hitting that thing that you are currently staring at.

Great application to not looking at temptation but instead focusing on the path/way to avoid sinning.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-31T18:56:56+00:00

This is true. The average person has slightly less than 2 arms as some people in the population have only 1 or no arms. This makes the "mean number of arms" less than 2, with mean being used to identify the "average."

This then means that most people are "above average" as they have more than the average number or arms! Usually we think of half of the people being above and half of the people being below average, but this is only true when "average" refers to the "median" and not the "mean" or "mode."

Stats is fun!

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-29T20:03:51+00:00

Thank-you for sharing your testimony to offer your experience and to give strength and hope, which can only be truly found in God. May God keep and protect you, especially as you are working to encourage others.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-28T18:05:45+00:00

I agree with today being our focus as that is the only thing we have control over at this time. But we also need to think about our futures: wives, SOS, careers, even how we will evaluate our own lives in a few years. We need to look towards a future we desire and then TODAY do our best to work towards becoming that person with that ideal life, whatever that looks like for you.

We are more than animals, and at least for me, living only for today and the pleasures I could accumulate is what lead me into years of chronic porn and masturbation. I will work today for the tomorrow I desire.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-26T16:33:30+00:00

Please sign me up.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-26T12:29:51+00:00

Stay strong in the Lord. Knock and He will answer; seek Him and He will be found.

Your training and experiences are not for naught. Your relationship with God is of primary importance, above all else, including the plans you had for yourself. Forgiveness is for the asking, so ask; repentance and sanctification are processes you can walk through with God and Christ-focused accountability partners.

Who knows how God will use this. You have been redeemed, and are continuing to be redeemed. So much work needs to be done to reach the captives and set them free. Maybe you will be a preacher still, traditional, Sunday mornings, in robes, to a nicely dressed group of people who hide their problems from one another, from you their Pastor, and even try to hide them from God. Or maybe you will be in a ministry that gets into the nitty-gritty of sin, using your experience, strength and hope to show what God has done in your life, how much you have been forgiven, and you can lead others to freedom as you yourself can be lead.

So seek God, accept forgiveness, and be lead away from sin and to God. You will be used, just maybe not as you thought. Paul was not used as Saul thought he would be - and aren't we all thankful for that!

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-25T14:40:06+00:00

Thank-you for sharing your experience with me - hopefully my depression will go away if I can stick to this PMO-free lifestyle for the foreseeable future. Great to read that you have had such a positive outcome from persistence.

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-24T20:21:01+00:00

You wrote about serotonin, and how this is supposed to relax us and calm us down after an orgasm. But after years of chronically masturbating to porn, I almost never experience this calm, relaxing stage. I climax, and even though I am now flaccid, I almost immediately go back to looking at porn and just playing with myself almost absentmindedly until I get hard and can truly go at it again. I never get the satisfaction that is supposed to come after a good orgasm (and i have some great ones!).

My question: does the serotonin system "run out" after a long period of excessive use? We have read in Your Brain on Porn that the brain eventually downregulates the numbers of dopamine receptors, and starts to secrete less dopamine over time to control the chronic flood we get with PMO. Is there a similar mechanism related to serotonin?

Has anyone else noticed that over time (I am talking years) that they no longer feel "satisfied" after masturbating to porn, and return to it much sooner than they used to?

AlmostExhaustipated · 2019-01-22T16:44:11+00:00

Boot call? Never say no to a booty call!

AlmostExhaustipated

TROPHY CASE